Iraq News

Mass graves found in western Iraq: officials

Iraqi soldiers have discovered two shallow graves containing the bodies of people executed by the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) in the western desert town of Rutba, AFP reported Thursday (February 9th).

"The Iraqi army found two mass graves in Rutba containing the bodies of members of the security forces and of civilians," a captain in the army's 1st division said.

The first indications suggested the victims had been executed by ISIL when the group took control of the town in mid-2014, he said.

Rutba, a small town of significant strategic value, lies on the road to Jordan, about 390 kilometres west of Baghdad.

The mayor of the town, which was retaken from ISIL in May last year, said one grave was found on a plot in a central neighbourhood that had been used to dump hospital waste while the other was located on Rutba's southern edge.

"The bodies we have seen have bullet impacts... We do not know the exact number of bodies because we are leaving this work to a forensic team but we expect there are about 25," Imad Meshaal said.

"One of the two graves contains the bodies of young people under the age of 18," Anbar police chief Maj. Gen. Hadi Kassar Erzaij told Diyaruna.

Rutba is very isolated in the desert of Anbar province. ISIL militants have attacked the town several times since the security forces retook control of it.

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